The general perception of micro PLO games is that they play very loose and passive. But that is not the whole truth. There are a lot of regulars (particularly at the deep, ante games) who fancy themselves as LAGs and think the way to dominate the table is to show a lot of aggression. Many of them from Scandinavia but other countries as well.

I recently saw a Supernova having a go at another player who was playing rather tightly and accused him of only ever showing up with strong holdings and therefore not inviting action. First of all he's kind of missing the point as it is his job to adjust to his opponent and also he is ignoring the big downside his style of play (he's running at something like 30/20/10) has - and that is rake. Which he's paying a lot of and it doesn't seem to be going well for him when he plays microstakes as Supernova.

So I had a look through my PT4 database to check the rake stats on some of the players. When I say rake I mean 'actual rake paid' ('winner takes all', attributed rake on PT4).

First of all my own (I play 23/17/4):

PLO10: ~13 bb/100
PLO10 Ante: ~17.5 bb/100
PLO5: ~15 bb/100

That seems like a lot but with PlatinumStar on Stars and the big winrates possible it's not that bad.

Now let's have a look at three regular players I have big samples on:

PLO 10 Ante:
34/21/9: 29 bb/100
55/31/11: 34 bb/100
35/22/19: 35 bb/100

And now two examples of players whose stats don't even look that much out of line apart from the high 3-bet:

PLO 5:
25/17/11: 28 bb/100
24/21/10: 19 bb/100

Obviously how you play postflop is important as well but we can see a correlation between preflop aggression and looseness and rake paid. I see so much stupid inflating of pots by players who should know better it's unreal. Stuff like squeezing oop because the hand is double-suited and connected or any AAxx.

I'm sure they feel like the dog's bollocks when they 3-bet me for the 3rd time with dubious holdings oop and take it down with a pot-sized continuation bet but in the end I think none of them are winning. Whereas I am.

Finally let's go to the most extreme example I know of. This is a player who everyone playing PLO5 and 10 should be familiar with. He plays 93/69/50 over a large sample and he pays (you better sit down) 75(!) bb/100 in rake. Now I can't imagine he's playing to make money but playing 4-6 tables every day he's technically a regular. But even if he were the most skillful player on earth it would be impossible for him to win because of the rake. That's pretty extraordinary.

The bottom line is you should really think twice before you inflate the pot at micro stakes. First of all fold equity is generally lower and most importantly the insane rake can more than negate any potential increase in EV making a sub-optimal play (in a vaccum) actually the better option sometimes.